I was never convinced about Stevens, even in the u23s. I honestly believe his problem was & still is, in his head. He was never a winger either, which is perhaps part of the problem, as he just couldn't fulfil the role required of him. Certainly not consistently, anyway. If he gets his head seeing to, he might turn out to be a decent centre mid. If ...
I don’t believe Brugge are taking the pee to be honest with you, they ensured they had a buy clause inserted. It’s exactly the same as Ben White, he wasn’t worth £40-£50m before he spent a season with us, it’s the same as Noa, we just weren’t as smart with Ben White
Angus Kinnear has said he expects 5 U23s to have an impact in the first team this season. The 4 we bought last Summer Drameh, Summerville Greenwood and Gelhardt plus Lewis Bate this Summer. This has obviously been discussed by the board along with Bielsa so expecting to see use in cup comps. Charlie Cresswell keeps making the first team bench and if we have a problem at CB today he could be on as Koch isnt available?
Similar with Jack Harrison. I'm sure if someone made an offer of £20m, we would turn it down as being insufficient, and fans of the club making the offer, would be saying but you only bought him for £11m a couple of months ago, surely his value hasn't doubled since then
Big difference is we have paid his salary for the last 3 seasons and paid 3 large loan fees, add those loan fees to his £11m (Which was originally agreed at £8m) and you have at least £20m
Last weekend we were passed off the park and only had 30% possession to their 70%. Which in the main was down to the quality of player Yesterday we reversed that by having 70% of the ball to their 30% and what that highlighted was a lot more fight but more importantly it also showed where our problems lie. We yet again had a lot of passes missed their target and we only had 17 shots at goal. Everton who only had 30% of the ball also had 17 shots at goal but had 8 on target which was double the shots on target we had. So when we do get our passes away we are breaking down in and around the box. Bamford had a good game but little opportunity to score. Final balls missed from Harrison, Junior, Raphinha, Dallas, Klich, Roberts and Phillips. Yes it will click at some stage and we will batter some team. I was hoping a new winger and AM would sort that out but not happening so far and that could be our Achilles heel this season. Teams will know better how to counter our attacks and why we needed an upgrade in a couple of positions. A lot more rosy than this time last week though
Well I think it’s clear to see we’re not good enough to push for top 8. Yes I know it’s only two games in but when you look at the options on the bench, when you consider we will get injuries and suspensions…. So with that in mind, with the thought who knows how much longer Bielsa will stick around…. I’d love to see a strong team put out on Tuesday night and let’s go for the EFL cup. 1) Players I’d only play for 45 minutes - Phillips and Llorente 2) Summerville, Rodrigo, Roberts, Costa and Drameh to start 3) Rest Harrison, Raphinha, Klich, Bamford, Ayling
Rest? They had a few weeks off before returning, have played two games so far with a maximum of two more games to play before another two weeks off ffs they must be exhausted
I'd love to see Summerville and Dramah start, though Ayling has a big engine on him, the same as Alioski. I think we miss Aloski!
possession stats were 50:50 last week doc. Ultimately its what you do with it. A lot of sides are happy to sit back against us (or are forced to because they aren’t good enough to beat our press regularly) and look to hit us on the counter. It’s hard to break sides down when they have loads of men behind the ball and passes will always go astray in tight spaces. Pablo’s passing stats were generally poor, because he was trying more key passes than others. maybe that’s why I have more patience than most on here with Roberts.. of course he’ll give the ball away in his position. I see he’s been written off after 40 minutes of football, personally I thought he looked ok towards the end of last season and in both cameo’s this season. Likely with everyone fit he’s third choice AM. People should get off his back.
Bielsa has to balance the U23s home game on Monday against Spurs, and the cup match on Tuesday. I would love to see Gelhardt, Drameh and Summerville all start on Tuesday, but that hurts our chances against Spurs the night before. These are the problems we have with only having a small first team squad, and we saw the results last season and the season before with poor cup performances as we tended to flood those teams with U18s and U23s, for EFL Cup etc. Llorente, Rodrigo, Roberts, Junior,Shackelton, Costa and Koch all need game time.
Play the u23’s for the u23 match, and the first team for the cup match with the u23’s on the bench - quite simple really.
Yes we do miss Alioski, quite a few times Harrison was looking for Firpo to overlap, either receive the ball or take a player with him, he just stood looking at Harrison!!!!! either not grasped the way we play OR he is very unfit and reason he was subbed.
Jr has been doing that on pre season as well. It's a pity Alioski didn't sign a new contract, because I think we miss him.
It usually takes a while for players to adjust to Bielsaball. Firpo will be no different. One thing about Firpo..he is a great athlete. He is quick, can jump, looks physically strong. He can obviously play. He just needs a bit of time.
In Bielsa speak he said yesterday that Junior is dynamic and has attributes to unsettle defenders and he will very soon be on an almost telepathic plain with Harrison.
